News

Meet malaria’s worst nightmare

Author: Erik Siemers

Posted: September 12, 2013

Malaria’s biggest enemy might be home grown here in Portland.

DesignMedix Inc. is a 5-year old drug-development startup led by Lynnor Stevenson and Sandra Shotwell, a former consulting tandem that once helped the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation navigate the intellectual property landscape around malaria vaccines.

In 2006, they met Portland State University chemistry professor David Peyton, who was working on technology for overcoming resistance to malaria drugs.

Together, they formed DesignMedix and are developing a product they hope could be in human clinical studies by the end of the year.

The technology: DesignMedix is a small-molecule drug development company with a focus onovercoming drug resistance in infectious and other diseases. The company’s lead program is a cure for malaria.

Size of the market: The market worldwide for malaria drugs is more than $500 million. The market for antibiotics and cancer drugs is several billion dollars.

Competition: The company notes there are several drugs on the market for malaria, but says are becoming less effective as drug resistance rises.

Competitive Advantage: DesignMedix’s technology is designed to overcome a key type of drug resistance found in malaria, bacteria, and cancer. DesignMedix’s lead malaria drug worked in all patient samples tested.

Managers and their background: CEO Stevenson, Ph.D., has experience leading successful entrepreneurial biotech companies, including work leading to the development of bone growth factors now approved for sale in the U.S. and Europe. President and Chief Operating Officer Shotwell has experience transferring drug development programs to major pharmaceutical companies. Chief Scientific Officer Peyton, Ph.D., is an analytical and medicinal chemist who has collaborated on numerous drug development programs.